International Flag Counter

Archive for the ‘military affairs’ Category

.. someone in Pvt Bergdahl ‘ s chain of command should be doing this , not a flag officer . Someone more like at a Colonel , Lt. Colonel , or Major should convene this inquiry …

.. then what ? ..

.. if I understand military proceedings right , it would then be turned over to Army JAG . Given the high – profile , Army JAG would assign their best and brightest to the case , especially if the c-of-c expects the possibility of charges . That is something that the officer in the command should bring forth , because it would also bring forward Pvt . Bergdahl ‘ s defense …

.. Whatever the young man has done , he deserves a defense . No , not a slipshod one . Given things , he should get the best possible defense …

.. [update] — now , Pvt Bergdahl has been released from his rehabilitation agenda . Now , he has been reassigned to desk duty . Wise move . He would probably get his ass kicked or worse if he were returned to his original MOS (combat infantryman) …

.. the ObamaCraps have made a budget proposal (over the next two years) to eliinate two very successful and dominant US Navy missile systems . One is the famous Tomahawk cruise missile . The other is the Hellfire missile . How can those damn fools make a proposal like this …

.. Morally and politically , Washington , D.C. and the Pentagon have to be in shock over this proposal . Something like this almost certainly will be a non – starter in the House , and probably in the Senate as well . It is not just the jobs that these missile systems have created . it is the sense of military dominance that they have given us …

.. for his Senate seat . He is an old fart , but he is doing better than ever .

.. Yes , I know , he is a moderate . He will likely move to the right , considering that he will face a primary challenge the next time up . McCain moving towards the right will give the Tea Party a boost .

.. However , McCain will be in the Senate leadership next year . My guess is that McCain will be the next chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee . He will give the military (with broad strokes) what they want , but only within certain limits .

.. McCain is no soft touch . He will be a hardass on Pentagon oversight , and will work with Chuck Hagel (a fellow Vietnam vet) and the House to cut the civilian side down harshly as part of a way to help finance an overhaul and updating of weapons systems . The military needs an overhaul , and with McCain riding on them , they are going to get it , along with the budget $$ that they need …

.. At least the uniformed military is telling it straight . We were not exactly in position to do much of anything to rescue people . However . we could have done something more than what we did , which was … NOTHING !!

.. those folks in our government ‘ s service deserved better . The dead and the injured certainly deserved better . We could have done something to save lives , even if improvised ..

.. also , the military realized that security needed to be boosted at the Benghazi consulate . They sent the word to State . State and the ObamaCraps did NOTHING !! …

[-] a truly bipartisan bill will attract much more support from the senior levels of both parties , ..
[-] a bill with that much support will make it as an amendment onto any relevant bill , ..
[-] that support will put Dingy Harry Reid in a spot ; he will have to let the bill come to the floor , ..
[-] it will put POTUS in an impossible situation ; he will want to veto the bill , but the votes will be there to override , and by plenty , ..
[-] such a bill will piss off Iran , and give it the excuse it needs to walk away from the so – called nuclear talks in Geneva , Switzerland .

.. I support the bill . The Iran nuclear deal is an obscene joke ; It does not slow down Iran ‘ s nuclear program one bit . The ObamaCraps have issued a veto threat , but , I hope , someone in there is telling His Lordship that the votes are there , or will be there by plenty to pass the bill in both Houses of Congress by veto – proof margins .

.. given the ecosocialist policies here in the U.S. , unfortunately , it is unlikely anytime soon for us to reach a level of self – sufficiency in oil production . So , it makes sense to keep the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in our camp .

.. The Saudis are the prime seat of power in the Arab world . Their kingdom carries an outsize weight in every Arab capital , no matter where . They do even in non – Arab capitals , given that they are the location of Mecca and Medinah , the #1 and #3 holiest sites in Islam .

.. F.Y.I. , folks , there are [#] nations with Muslim populations that are larger than that of any Arab nation , and are also larger than that of Iran [80 million]

[-] Turkey — 96 million
[-] Pakistan — 180 million
[-] Malaysia — about 150 million
[-] Indonesia — over 250 million
[-] China — 30 to 50 million Muslim population
[-] India — between 175 million to 200 million

by comparison ,
[-] U.S.A. — between 2.5 million and 3 million

.. so , get the idea also that Saudi Arabia sits on 3 (yes , 3) of the largest pools of developed oil fields in the world . They share one with Iraq , one more with Kuwait , and have the largest to themselves . They produce over 9 million barrels of oil a day . Only Russia [10 million] and the U.S. [9 million] compare . They can also expand their capacity , if the market warrants . And Iran knows it …

.. Also , there is more capacity coming back on the market . Libya is barely producing any oil at all , except for its own needs . It can eventuall rebuild . Iraq is rebuilding its production , at around 2.5 million to 3 million barrels a day . Iraq is capable of producing up around 5 . 0 to 5.5 million barrels a day . So there is more capacity to come back on the market .

.. Play it smart . It helps keeping the Kingdom in our camp . They hate the mullahs . They may not like Israel all that much , but they recognize a nation that maximizes its strengths , which Israel must do to survive .

.. Also , Iran is between a rock and a hard place . They know (now) that Azerbaijan is cooperating with the Israelis . The Azeris are hardly the only TransCaucausaisn nation that is [Armenia likely is , ditto Georgia] . If the Kingdom is , then Israel can easily flank Iran with its air power , and draw in the US , like it or not .

.. Do Not forget about India , either . They have the world ‘ s second largest navy , and they have 4 aircraft carriers , more than anyone else . Their sub force could easily sneak into the Persian Gulf and blast Iran without them knowing it was there , or that it was them that did it .

.. Also , Israel has a submarine force of its own . It is publically known at 4 , but I am betting that it is likely 6 or more . That would not surprise me one bit . A sub battle in the Indian Ocean would be a messy business . India and Israel against Iran would be no contest . Then , there would be lots and lots of cruise missiles raining down all over Iran and Lebanon (Hezbollahland) .

.. In this case [link] , I think that Israel will have something to say and do about it . PM Netanyahu has already ” popped off ” at POTUS at this being an extraordinary bad deal ; I believe that he is right . The question is now , is what happens when Iran cheats (which it will) …

.. for God ‘ s Sake , the red line is your creation . Quit trying to squirm out from under it . The so – called “international community” is a joke . All they have is their interests at stake . Do they really have this interest in common ? They should , or should act like it . However , they do not , and are not acting like it . They are acting like a bunch of lily – livered wussies , trying to hide under the nearest rock .

.. the so – called “international law” is not a totalitarian imposition upon this nation . It is a set of common interests , beliefs , and laws , acting through agreements and treaties . Remember , in any agreement , especially this nation , the United States has always reserved the right to act unilaterally , and in its own interest . We should act like it , and not hide our heads under a rock .

.. If the prohibition against the use of chemical , biological , or nuclear weapons is to have any meaning , then when a bad actor does use them , then make sure you find a way to punish them . Otherwise , you risk the very real possibility of having those damn things being used against yourself . It does not always mean military action . It could be economic action , social shunning , economic sanctions , or even diplomatic isolation . If those actions fail , then military action may well be necessary . It also takes courage , as well as leadership , Mr. President .

.. It is time that you show some courage , POTUS . It is time to take a stand . I am not all that confident in your ability to lead us . Also , what are the goals of the operation ? Be honest , because you cannot guarantee that there will not be “boots on the ground . ” Those folks are our fellow citizens , and those of our allies . Their lives should not be thrown away , or spent in a vain exercise in political grandstanding . What are our nation ‘ s interests in this ? Why ? Those questions are needed to be answered , and as soon as possible .

.. I am an internationalist . I am most definitely not an isolationist . I believe that we likely will need to take military action in Syria . It is a precursor to what is likely to come up in terms of Iran . If the mullahs in Qum had not stepped up , Assad and his cronies would have gotten the “Mussolini treatment” by now . They are very much alive , unfortunately . Over 1,500 of his fellow Syrians , though , are not . They have been murdered , by gas attack .

.. Quit beating around the bush . Especially Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] . He is a former KGB Colonel , and knows what the use of chemical weapons is like . So did Adolph Hitler . It was why there was no chemical weapons used in Europe in World War II . Hitler knew well what would follow . So should Assad . I am not wild about Francois Hollande (France) . He is almost as big a wuss as is our POTUS . At least Hollande and the French are stepping up . So will the Arab League , once POTUS quits messing around .

.. Dealing with this issue is one of national importance to any nation state . It should make any major political party think twice about the normal political “screwing around . ” Yea , that applies here in the U.S. . A judgement on this issue should be made on our nation ‘ s interest , not that of our party , or another . The typical partisanship should not apply . It also applies to the ObamaCraps . Get the O.C. political operators out of there . They are not necessary , and will unnecessarily heat things up , and for the wrong reasons .

.. What Ed Milliband (the Labour leader) evidently did in the U.K. really stinks . At least PM Cameron ‘ s coalition partners (the Liberal Democrats) were upfront and honest about it . Labour was not . Evidently the great mass of Labour was going to support the Government , and vote in favour of military action . Then Milliband flipfloped , and the motion went down . Labour should be shamed into returning , and voting in favour of the motion . British interests are at stake , as well as American . Labour should be ashamed of itself . Miliband should resign .

.. Considering what Syria has “under the hood , ” the Israelis are being prudent .

.. Israel has multiple layers of defense . Their intelligence system is second to none in the world . If the Syrians are crazy enough to even think of launching missiles against Israel , the Mossad will have at least some idea of what is coming , and when . The I.D.F. is virutally second to none in national defense .

.. If Syria is even thinking of launching one missile at Israel , Israel will retailiate , and very strongly . PM Netanyahu may well listen to most U.S. Presidents , but , does anyone think , considering their recent history , that Netanyahu will take anything more than a prefunctory phone call from Obama . Any Syrian missile may well have either a chemical or biological warhead on board . If it does , a full retaliatory strike is likely , no matter what POTUS thinks or says . PMs of Israel will listen to U.S. presidents , but they must have their country ‘ s interests at heart , not America ‘ s .

.. This missile system is something new , I believe . If it had to , Israel could finish the job on the missile system , and produce it on its own . If it had to , it could finance it surrepticiously , whether the U.S. wanted it to , or , not . take a look at the tape link for yourself , and see what you think … [link]

.. Secretary of State John Boy Kerry was testifying today in front of the United States Senate Foreign Affairs Committee , attempting to make the case for intervention in Syria . Yes , intervention in Syria . At least John Boy was being a fair bit more honest .

.. Sure , he was hemming and hawing . He was still trying to play the old political game of “pin the Tail on the Donkey ” …on Congress . But , he was not doing all that well at it . Not that either the DummyCraps or the G.O.P. were shying away from the topic . Far from it . They want the ObamaCrap Administration to step up and make the case . Which , so far , the ObamaCraps have done a piss poor job of doing .

.. See for yourself , as JohnBoy tries to answer U.S. Senator Ron Johnson [R-Ws] ‘ s questions on the subject at hand … [link] …

.. You figure that POTUS would be able to make a clear decision , one way or another , on anything . It seems that this dumbbell cannot , even if his life depended on it .

.. Evidently , the Obama administration has temporarily suspended aid to Egypt’s military while not publicly declaring that the ouster of former President Mohammed Morsi in July was a coup. Two administration officials also told the publication that White House lawyers decided the law called for temporarily restricting military aid in the event of a coup, but did not mandate a public announcement about whether a coup had actually taken place.

.. according to one official , “The decision was we’re going to avoid saying it was a coup, but to stay on the safe side of the law we are going to act as if the designation has been made for now,” “By not announcing the decision, it gives the administration the flexibility to reverse it.”

.. for god ‘ s sake , either make the call , or do not make the call . Do not be weak in the knees about it . Right now , the ObamaCraps are behaving like a bunch of wussies . Publicly, the ObamaCraps has indicated that $585 million of the promised 1.3 billion in military aid for fiscal 2013 is not officially on hold because it is not technically due to be delivered to Egypt until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

.. you folks are behaving like a bunch of idiots . Show some spine , and “grow a pair.” Either it was a coup , or it was not . Issue a waiver , if maintaining relations with Egypt (and its regime) is important enough . The military group may not be a bunch of choirboys or boy scouts , but they are far preferrable to the bloodthirsty religious tyranny of the Muslim Brotherhood .

The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since

National Security Agency Seal (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.

Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by statute and executive order. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. e-mails and telephone calls.

The documents, provided earlier this summer to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, include a level of detail and analysis that is not routinely shared with Congress or the special court that oversees surveillance. In one of the documents, agency personnel are instructed to remove details and substitute more generic language in reports to the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

In one instance, the NSA decided that it need not report the unintended surveillance of Americans. A notable example in 2008 was the interception of a “large number” of calls placed from Washington when a programming error confused the U.S. area code 202 for 20, the international dialing code for Egypt, according to a “quality assurance” review that was not distributed to the NSA’s oversight staff.

In another case, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has authority over some NSA operations, did not learn about a new collection method until it had been in operation for many months. The court ruled it unconstitutional.

The Obama administration has provided almost no public information about the NSA’s compliance record. In June, after promising to explain the NSA’s record in “as transparent a way as we possibly can,” Deputy Attorney General James Cole described extensive safeguards and oversight that keep the agency in check. “Every now and then, there may be a mistake,” Cole said in congressional testimony.

The NSA audit obtained by The Post, dated May 2012, counted 2,776 incidents in the preceding 12 months of unauthorized collection, storage, access to or distribution of legally protected communications. Most were unintended. Many involved failures of due diligence or violations of standard operating procedure. The most serious incidents included a violation of a court order and unauthorized use of data about more than 3,000 Americans and green-card holders.

In a statement in response to questions for this article, the NSA said it attempts to identify problems “at the earliest possible moment, implement mitigation measures wherever possible, and drive the numbers down.” The government was made aware of The Post’s intention to publish the documents that accompany this article online.

“We’re a human-run agency operating in a complex environment with a number of different regulatory regimes, so at times we find ourselves on the wrong side of the line,” a senior NSA official said in an interview, speaking with White House permission on the condition of anonymity.

“You can look at it as a percentage of our total activity that occurs each day,” he said. “You look at a number in absolute terms that looks big, and when you look at it in relative terms, it looks a little different.”

There is no reliable way to calculate from the number of recorded compliance issues how many Americans have had their communications improperly collected, stored or distributed by the NSA.

The causes and severity of NSA infractions vary widely. One in 10 incidents is attributed to a typographical error in which an analyst enters an incorrect query and retrieves data about U.S phone calls or e-mails.

But the more serious lapses include unauthorized access to intercepted communications, the distribution of protected content and the use of automated systems without built-in safeguards to prevent unlawful surveillance.

The May 2012 audit, intended for the agency’s top leaders, counts only incidents at the NSA’s Fort Meade headquarters and other ­facilities in the Washington area. Three government officials, speak­ing on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters, said the number would be substantially higher if it included other NSA operating units and regional collection centers.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who did not receive a copy of the 2012 audit until The Post asked her staff about it, said in a statement late Thursday that the committee “can and should do more to independently verify that NSA’s operations are appropriate, and its reports of compliance incidents are accurate.”

Despite the quadrupling of the NSA’s oversight staff after a series of significant violations in 2009, the rate of infractions increased throughout 2011 and early 2012. An NSA spokesman declined to disclose whether the trend has continued since last year.

One major problem is largely unpreventable, the audit says, because current operations rely on technology that cannot quickly determine whether a foreign mobile phone has entered the United States.

In what appears to be one of the most serious violations, the NSA diverted large volumes of international data passing through fiber-optic cables in the United States into a repository where the material could be stored temporarily for processing and selection.

The operation to obtain what the agency called “multiple communications transactions” collected and commingled U.S. and foreign e-mails, according to an article in SSO News, a top-secret internal newsletter of the NSA’s Special Source Operations unit. NSA lawyers told the court that the agency could not practicably filter out the communications of Americans.

In October 2011, months after the program got underway, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruled that the collection effort was unconstitutional. The court said that the methods used were “deficient on statutory and constitutional grounds,” according to a top-secret summary of the opinion, and it ordered the NSA to comply with standard privacy protections or stop the program.

James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, has acknowledged that the court found the NSA in breach of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, but the Obama administration has fought a Freedom of Information lawsuit that seeks the opinion.

Generally, the NSA reveals nothing in public about its errors and infractions. The unclassified versions of the administration’s semiannual reports to Congress feature blacked-out pages under the headline “Statistical Data Relating to Compliance Incidents.”

Members of Congress may read the unredacted documents, but only in a special secure room, and they are not allowed to take notes. Fewer than 10 percent of lawmakers employ a staff member who has the security clearance to read the reports and provide advice about their meaning and significance.

The limited portions of the reports that can be read by the public acknowledge “a small number of compliance incidents.”

Under NSA auditing guidelines, the incident count does not usually disclose the number of Americans affected.

“What you really want to know, I would think, is how many innocent U.S. person communications are, one, collected at all, and two, subject to scrutiny,” said Julian Sanchez, a research scholar and close student of the NSA at the Cato Institute.

The documents provided by Snowden offer only glimpses of those questions. Some reports make clear that an unauthorized search produced no records. But a single “incident” in February 2012 involved the unlawful retention of 3,032 files that the surveillance court had ordered the NSA to destroy, according to the May 2012 audit. Each file contained an undisclosed number of telephone call records.

One of the documents sheds new light on a statement by NSA Director Keith B. Alexander last year that “we don’t hold data on U.S. citizens.”

Some Obama administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have defended Alexander with assertions that the agency’s internal definition of “data” does not cover “metadata” such as the trillions of American call records that the NSA is now known to have collected and stored since 2006. Those records include the telephone numbers of the parties and the times and durations of conversations, among other details, but not their content or the names of callers.

The NSA’s authoritative def­inition of data includes those call records. “Signals Intelligence Management Directive 421,” which is quoted in secret oversight and auditing guidelines, states that “raw SIGINT data . . . includes, but is not limited to, unevaluated and/or unminimized transcripts, gists, facsimiles, telex, voice, and some forms of computer-generated data, such as call event records and other Digital Network Intelligence (DNI) metadata as well as DNI message text.”

In the case of the collection effort that confused calls placed from Washington with those placed from Egypt, it is unclear what the NSA meant by a “large number” of intercepted calls. A spokesman declined to discuss the matter.

The NSA has different reporting requirements for each branch of government and each of its legal authorities. The “202” collection was deemed irrelevant to any of them. “The issue pertained to Metadata ONLY so there were no defects to report,” according to the author of the secret memo from March 2013.

The large number of database query incidents, which involve previously collected communications, confirms long-standing suspicions that the NSA’s vast data banks — with code names such as MARINA, PINWALE and XKEYSCORE — house a considerable volume of information about Americans. Ordinarily the identities of people in the United States are masked, but intelligence “customers” may request unmasking, either one case at a time or in standing orders.

In dozens of cases, NSA personnel made careless use of the agency’s extraordinary powers, according to individual auditing reports. One team of analysts in Hawaii, for example, asked a system called DISHFIRE to find any communications that mentioned both the Swedish manufacturer Ericsson and “radio” or “radar” — a query that could just as easily have collected on people in the United States as on their Pakistani military target.

The NSA uses the term “incidental” when it sweeps up the records of an American while targeting a foreigner or a U.S. person who is believed to be involved in terrorism. Official guidelines for NSA personnel say that kind of incident, pervasive under current practices, “does not constitute a . . . violation” and “does not have to be reported” to the NSA inspector general for inclusion in quarterly reports to Congress. Once added to its databases, absent other restrictions, the communications of Americans may be searched freely.

In one required tutorial, NSA collectors and analysts are taught to fill out oversight forms without giving “extraneous information” to “our FAA overseers.” FAA is a reference to the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which granted broad new authorities to the NSA in exchange for regular audits from the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and periodic reports to Congress and the surveillance court.

Using real-world examples, the “Target Analyst Rationale Instructions” explain how NSA employees should strip out details and substitute generic descriptions of the evidence and analysis behind their targeting choices.

“I realize you can read those words a certain way,” said the high-ranking NSA official who spoke with White House authority, but the instructions were not intended to withhold information from auditors. “Think of a book of individual recipes,” he said. Each target “has a short, concise description,” but that is “not a substitute for the full recipe that follows, which our overseers also have access to.”

.. POTUS has condemned the Egyptian military’s slaughter of Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers . He has also acted to cancel joint military exercises scheduled for next month. He said that the violence should stop and that “a process of national reconciliation should begin.”

.. Not surprisingly , the ObamCrap White House is clueless about foreign af fairs , in general , and Egypt , in particular . They think that because they might call a shot , that the Egyptians will jump , and dance to their tune . On the contrary . The Arab World sees this as a brother Arab nation being bullied by the West . They cannot replace the military training (Israel can , to a point) , but these nations are loaded to the gills . They can easily replace the financial aid .

.. What the White House fails to understand is that the Egyptian military has very different ideas about what “reconciliation” means . Its goal is to eventually destroy the Muslim Brotherhood, its traditional adversary, by any land all means possible . it will likely mean wasting as many of the MB as is possible . They will jail the others , but there will , they hope , a great deal fewer of them .

.. Are the ObamaCraps that oblivious and stupid . Did they think that the Egyptians would dance to their tune . They are just as capabile of saying one thing , and then doing another as is the Administration . The ObamaCraps obviously do not understand the Brotherhood for the mortal threat to civilization that they are . Anyone that would compromise or even attepmt to reconcile with these murderous thugs would have to be insane .

.. The generals in Cairo have made cold calculations. One of them is that brutality pays dividends. Yes, there may be short-term consequences to the brutal crackdown: There’s still a decent chance that the U.S. will suspend aid to the Egyptian military . Expect that to happen . It will be only short – term , however . Short of an attack on Israel , Egypt will eventually get its American aid . Even if they do not , for a while , they can replace it , at least they economic side of it .

.. The military leadership has added up the score . They knew that the violence may well force Obama ‘ s hand . They also realize that he is weak . They also know that they have to be strong and stout . But the generals understood that a suspension of aid might be possible in the aftermath of the sort of crackdown we’re seeing now. Which means that they have come to think that wiping out the Brotherhood is worth the risk. (They also know that there are plenty of wealthy sheiks in the Persian Gulf who viscerally oppose the Brotherhood and who would be happy to supplement Egypt’s defense budget.)

.. I would not doubt that the crackdown will continue . One chief reason is Syria . The generals cannot help but notice that the world has stood idly by as Bashar al-Assad has presided over the deaths of some 100,000 Syrian citizens. In the Middle East, you can, in fact, get away with murder.

. And the Egyptian military has given the Brotherhood something it seeks: mass martyrdom, which is the most potent motivational tool a theocratic movement has in its arsenal.

.. Egypt is falling into ruin because the Brotherhood is anti-democratic, revanchist, anti-Christian and power-mad . It is also because the Egyptian military couldn’t conceive of a way to marginalize it without resorting to mass violence. This leaves the U.S. in the difficult position of having no one to support. There is, at this point, no good reason to continue funding the Egyptian armed forces. The aid obviously hasn’t provided the White House with sufficient leverage, and it makes the U.S. complicit in what just happened and what will undoubtedly continue to happen.

.. One argument for continued aid is that it encourages the military to maintain Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel. But the military will do so whether or not the U.S. provides money and weapons, because it has decided that Islamist extremism, and not Israel, is Egypt’s main enemy. And it will be too busy persecuting Egyptians.

The military judge presiding over the court-martial of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan ruled that he can continue to represent himself, denying a bid from his legal advisors to take over his defense amid concerns the former Army psychologist is trying to sink his own case to get the death penalty.

The lawyers assisting Hasan, called “standby attorneys,” claim he is trying to get the death penalty and have said it would be “morally repugnant” to help him achieve such a sentence. Hasan admitted in his opening statement that he was the shooter, appearing to be trying to get himself convicted.

.. If Hasan really wants the death penalty, he ought to be able to simply cop a plea . Unfortunately or not , it is a death penalty case . The Uniform Code for Military Justice [the U.C.M.J.] does not allow that in a capital case . Otherwise , the UCMJ would be happy to oblige him. No, what he wants is to put on some fancy legal theater and then get put to death. Which is more important? Probably the theater.

.. In order to play his own part in this , Hasan must be seen — in his eyes and in the eyes of his al-Qaeda comrades — to be the master, the conductor of his own trial. He will put on a glorious show, culminating in a glorious death for Allah. This has little to do with suicide-by-courtroom, and everything to do with an agent of radical Islam bending a Western institution to his will. Again.

.. the Department of inJustice has brought criminal charges against some of the folks involved in the Benghazi attack . They are treating it as a criminal investigation ?

.. Are You Kidding Me ? Those idiots committed an act of war , not a street crimie , you dummies . They are not a bunch of street thugs committing a street crime . They are terrorists , committing an act of war . It is not tiddly – winks , boys and girls . It is warfare , plain and simple .

.. It would be nice if those dummies in the ObamaCrap Administration would remember that we are at war , not playing Tic – Tac – Toe . The War on Terror is still in progress , more than ever . You cannot declare a war over , and it would be over . The bad guys are still fighting the war , Duh !!!

.. Since when do outside groups have the right to impose religious censorship on our nation ‘ s military ? This is crazy !

.. Good Lord , they have enough to worry about , as it is . Their first job , Job One , is our nation ‘ s defense . Their efforts are second to none . Their abilities to perform their jobs and their missions are second to none . Our nation ‘ s military , its technology , its strategy , and its ability are second to none .

.. So when it is said that having religious faith , and showing the same , and speaking about it , is against the good order and discipline

English: The Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

in the military service . When does the civilian leadership have the right to impose anti – religious censorship , impinging on the religious freedom and rights of our fellow citizens in uniform ? Why ?

.. These radicals , such as the “Military Religious Freedom Foundation ” and the ” Freedom from Religion Foundation ” have perverted our Constitution , and its freedoms and rights . Most of all , our religious freedoms , for civilian and military alike , in the First Amendment to the Constitution , in the Bill of Rights . What it stands for is not the prohibition of religion in the public sphere . Not at all . It stand for the free exercise thereof , and the prohibition of a “state church.” Not for the suppresion of religion and faith .

.. Our history , military and otherwise , is clear on those points . First and foremost , is the 1st Amendment ‘ s targeting of religious freedom . Our founders wanted to be absolutely sure and clear that all of us have the free and clear right to practice our faith , or to not practice it , if that is our choice . Also , the provision of chaplains of various faiths . These people (men and women) are priests , pastors , rabbis , and imans , there to minister to the religious needs of our troops & Marines . Most of all , without impignging on the good order and discipline in the ranks , is their rights to make statements of religious and moral issues , that are a part of their job as a religious leader from the pulpit .

.. I post this article from Breitbart Media ‘ s “Big Government” of the insanity that is going on in the current atmosphere . It is time that a thorough cleansing of the anti – religious bigots from the public sphere take place …

A Christian chaplain in the military is being officially censored for engaging in free speech, and anti-Christian activists are demanding he be punished.

Lt. Col. Kenneth Reyes is a Christian chaplain currently serving in the U.S. Air Force. He is stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska. As an ordained clergyman whose duties are to provide religious instruction and spiritual counseling, he has a page on the base’s website called “Chaplain’s Corner.”

Reyes recently wrote an essay entitled, “No Atheists in Foxholes: Chaplains Gave All in World War II.” This common saying is attributed to a Catholic priest in World War II, made famous when President Dwight D. Eisenhower said during a 1954 speech: “I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily lives. In battle, they learned a great truth that there are no atheists in the foxholes.”

As reported by Fox News’s Todd Starnes, when Reyes referenced this famous line in his essay, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) contacted the base commander, Col. Brian Duffy, demanding he take action on Reyes’s “anti-secular diatribe.”

MRFF’s letter says that by Reyes’s “use of the bigoted, religious supremacist phrase, ‘no atheists in foxholes,’ he defiles the dignity of service members.” They accuse him of violating military regulations.

My legal research on this issue uncovered no regulation prohibiting Reyes’ speech, which looks like expression protected by the free speech and religious freedom provisions of the First Amendment. Military leaders did not respond to Fox’s inquiries asking the Air Force to identify any such rules.

Nonetheless, only five hours after MRFF’s complaint, the essay was removed from the website. Duffy has profusely apologized to MRFF for not stopping this religious leader from sharing religious thoughts.

But this response—which again appears to be a violation of Reyes’s First Amendment rights—is insufficient for MRFF. They said, “Faith based hate, is hate all the same,” and, “Lt. Col. Reyes must be appropriately punished.” (Emphasis added).

So MRFF is saying that the coercive power of government must be used to punish a military officer, who is also an ordained Christian minister, for making ordinary religious references consistent with his faith.

Retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin of the Family Research Council—one of the leaders of a new religious liberty coalition for the military—responded, “A chaplain has been censored for expressing his beliefs about the role of faith in the lives of service members… Why do we have chaplains if they aren’t allowed to fulfill that purpose?”

MRFF is activist Mikey Weinstein’s organization. He called observant Christians “fundamentalist monsters” seeking to impose a “reign of theocratic terror,” and he described sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military as an act of “spiritual rape” that makes believers “enemies of the Constitution” who are committing an act of “sedition and treason” against this nation.

The Obama-Hagel Defense Department and Air Force have met with Weinstein and MRFF over a period of four years and recently told Congress that there are no problems with suppressing religious speech in the military. However, because this growing wave of anti-Christian extremism has been exposed to the public, the U.S. House has inserted new religious liberty protections for military members in pending legislation.

President Obama threatens to veto the legislation. Reyes’s story makes it more likely that Congress will stand its ground and fight to protect the religious liberty of him and countless others in the military, as those service members continue risking their lives to fight for all Americans.

Breitbart News legal columnist Ken Klukowski is senior fellow for religious liberty at the Family Research Council and on faculty at Liberty University School of Law. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.

.. Now , I grant you , I do not like hecklers . I think that they are show – offs , scene – stealers , and should be thrown out of the event in question on the spot . However , in this case , the heckler in question has a very good and accurate point .

.. POTUS is making a speech on foreign policy , and calls for the closure of the detainee prison at Gitmo . You would figure that someone would interrupt the speech . Well , someone did .

… the thing is , he does not have the balls . He would pay an enormous political price here , by closing it , and overseas , by figuring out what to do with the jihadis that would then be freed by his order .

President Obama is heckled about Guantanamo Bay during his speech on terrorism at the National Defense University on Thursday.

OBAMA: There is no justification beyond politics for congress to prevent us from closing a facility that never should have been opened.
HECKLER: Excuse me, President Obama, you are commander-in-chief–
OBAMA: Today–
[crowd applauds]
OBAMA: So, let me finish, ma’am. So, today once again, today– I’m about to address it. You gotta let me address it.
HECKLER: …close Guantanamo Bay…
OBAMA: Why don’t you sit down and I’ll tell you exactly what I’m going to do. Thank you. Ma’am, thank you. You should let me finish my sentence. Today, I once again call on congress to lift the restrictions on detainee transfers from Gitmo.

.. Junior , as I have come to call him , at time (Kim Jong Un) is an untried and untested leader . Unfortuntately , we also have an untried and untested leader in Barack Obama . May God in Heaven help up all . ..

.. It appears that Junior is doing a decent job at brinksmanship . Or , better yet , blinksmanship .The point of this high – stakes game is to see who blinks first . .. .. But if, as everybody agrees (for once), all the bluster coming from Pyongyang is just noise, meant only to play the game , it is still important to make sure the noisemakers in North Korea don’t win that game, either . ..

Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

.. The North Koreans calibrate these things carefully , and measure the response cosely . All the sobriety, dignity and reluctance to raise the president’s voice has not so far impressed anyone in Pyongyang. Now , unfortunately , the United States is tolerating a nuclear North Korea , where lip-reading clearly frightens no one. Who can blame Kim, or whoever is pulling his strings, for thinking that

Washington is prepared to tolerate a lot ? .. .. Anyone who understands anything about the Koreans knows they’re a tough-minded

people, who respect an adversary who stands up tall and have little regard for someone who is easily pushed around — or even allows one ‘ s self to appear to be pushed around . ..

.. A clown with an A-bomb is nothing to laugh at . and now we have to live with the Clown . ..

.. The Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services is raising questions about anofficial US Army Reserve Equal Opportunity presentation on “Extremism and Extremist Organizations.” Have a look at page 10 of the 33 page briefing. .. The slide is about “neo-Nazi” and other militia groups. The photo in the corner, though, is a photo of members of MS-13, a notorious and violent gang engaged in the cross-border drug and human smuggling trade. The best that can be said is that it is about a photo of a gang accompanying material about militias .

They tend to be very insular , and seldom engage in international drug operations , and that is evidence of very sloppy scholarship . .. .. But this particular presentation gets worse. Have a look at its loose definition of “supremacist” on page 7 , and the groups included with the obvious on page 24 …

.. This statement was released by the Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services

[AMS] as a result of the disclosure of these training materials by Alliance Defending

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 04/04/2013 AMS Calls on U.S. Defense Department to Review Army Reserve Training Material for Anti-Religious Content Concern raised by brief citing Catholicism as example of “religious extremism” WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS) issued the following statement today on the mischaracterization of “Catholicism” as an example of “religious extremism” on slide #24 of this U.S. Army Reserve training brief: Statement The Archdiocese for the Military Services and Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty recently became aware of a U.S. Army Reserve Equal Opportunity training brief that expressly listed “Catholicism,” “Evangelical Christianity” and other religious groups as examples of “religious extremism” alongside groups such as “Al Qaeda”, “Hamas” and the “KKK.”

The Archdiocese is astounded that Catholics were listed alongside groups that are, by their very mission and nature, violent and extremist. According to an investigation and reply from the Army Chief of Chaplains office, the training in question appears to have been an isolated incident not condoned by the Department of the Army. The Archdiocese and the Chaplain Alliance explained that the Army can and should take steps to prevent such incidents in the future.

The Archdiocese calls upon the Department of Defense to review these materials and to ensure that tax-payer funds are never again used to present blatantly anti-religious material to the men and women in uniform. -30- ———— The AMS was created as an independent archdiocese by Pope John Paul II in 1985 as the only Catholic jurisdiction responsible for endorsing and granting faculties for priests to serve as chaplains in the U.S. military and VA Medical Centers. AMS-endorsed priests serve at more than 220 U.S. military installations in 29 countries, making the AMS the nation’s only global archdiocese. AMS-endorsed chaplains also serve at 153 VA Medical Centers throughout the U.S. The AMS service population also includes American Catholic civilians working for the federal government in 134 countries, but currently, due to limited resources, the AMS cannot adequately serve this population. Worldwide, an estimated 1.8 million Catholics depend on the AMS to meet their spiritual and sacramental needs. For more information on the Archdiocese for the Military Services, visit www.milarch.org, the only official Web site for Catholics in the military and for the Cause of Father Vincent Capodanno, M.M.

.. Countries with nukes are dangerous enough . North Korea having nukes is even worse . Sonny Boy [Kim Jong Un ] having nukes is incredibly dangerous . And our President ‘ s own White House thinks that it would even remotely be a good thing for North Korea , in this environment , to launch a missile ??? Duh !?!?! …

… the North Koreans specialize in bluster and stupidity . However , my chief concern is what “who is in power” in Pyongyang thinks of our

North Korea Kim Jong-un (Photo credit: Wander Dorneles Mariano)

National Command Authority [Obama] , and how he might react in a crisis . the First Wus is no sharp tack or smart guy or cool customer in international affairs , and he has to deal with a power structure that is hard to fathom , and difficult to figure out . Wary one should be to deal with a strange owl , and more so with a wimp …

… Wars have gotten started that way . World War I got started that way …

… At a time like this , firmness of policy and strength of resolve , and better yet , a solid reputation are worth their weight in gold , and our First Wus does not have it . At all …

… matter of fact , this ” man ” is an oral surgeon . This is , in eff ect , a dentist who is , in fact , a doctor , i think ? …

… This one , however , is nothing of the sort . He was finally caught by a surprise inspection by the dentistry board in the state . Unfortunately . it was about 25 years too late . More than 7 , 000 of his patients have been advised to get tests for heptatitis C , as well as for AIDS …

… What were they waiting for ? News reports , such as this one , had to have reached Oklahoma City over these many years , and to not do routine inspections is gross malpractice …

the Kim dynasty would have collapsed long ago. Now though, China is losing patience with Kim Jong-Un’s belligerence. There are few obvious signs of that happening. Either China isn’t bothering with the

pressure, or it doesn’t have as much influence as it would like to think it has (and

everyone else would like to hope it has). “[Kim Jong Un] finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets of the [Korean People’s Army], ordering them to be on standby for fire so that they may strike any time the U.S. mainland, its military bases in the operational theaters in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea,” the state-run KCNA news agency stated.

the scary thing is about Pakistan . The Pakistanis have , as you will see below , a full nuclear capability , with all three legs of the nuclear triad … air , land , & sea …

English: Barack Obama (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

… the Pakistanis have been well known for playing fast and loose with the P.R.C. . Worse , they are actively co – operating in nuclear terms with Iran and North Korea … and they share a border with Iran …

… thankfully , they do not with the D.P.R.K. (North Korea) . It would be very difficult for them to get their hands on more advanced nuclear weapons designs , given Pakistan ‘ s dependence on US $$ , and ever – tighter sanctions that the UN Security Council has placed on them , and their own economic weakness …

You’d think it was in China’s interests to tell the country’s young leader to cool it. The

higher the rhetoric, the more we’ll see sophisticated American military hardware on the

Korean Peninsula. B-2 Stealth bombers at China’s back door this week can’t have pleased Beijing. The geo-political implications for China are tricky. Too much pressure on Pyongyang might

cause its collapse. That would be great for the impoverished people inside the country and

a result for the West, but not for China. There would probably be a massive flood of refugees across the northern border. Remember the politics too. China and North Korea are both Communist countries – there is a

loose political allegiance. A collapse would probably lead to a re-unified Korea allied with the Americans – too much

… it appears that Bashar Assad and his regime are getting real desparate …

… You might ask , why ? The government of Turkey intercepted and forced to land a Syrian Air passenger jet . One might think , whoopee – doo – dee ?!?! Well , this sucker was different . It was stuffed with military equipment and munitions . That is a very big no – no , folks . The Syrian government made a declaration that it was full of passengers . and , worse , it was coming from Russia …

… it is very simple , Mr. President . Our country , and the whole world , are owed the truth , the whole truth , and nothing but the truth …

… it is clear , from the evidence , that the Obama Administration knew from the first , that the US consulate in Benghazi was grossly underprotected . It should have had a much higher threat level , and , most likely , a USMC detachment protecting it . Al Quaeda in the Maghreb is nuts , but not stupid . They would not have messed with a Marine detachment . They also knew that it was a terrorist act , and not a random attack by a mob . Not only that , but they put out members of the Administration to speak about it , and lie about the subject …

… even worse , the ObamaCraps have been messing around with our elected representatives on the hill , not giving them the information that they need to perform oversight , and not be able to do their jobs …

… It is simple , Mr. President . Quit the lying . Quit the covering up of the aftermath . Come clean with the truth . the whole Truth , and Nothing but the Truth …